Post-con update – Minicon 48

Post-con update – Minicon 48

So before I get into this, I feel I have to mention that I had the following blog entry entirely written yesterday, hit ‘post’, and got an internal memory error. Apparently the entry didn’t save as a draft. Then I tried to fix the problem and got a big ole’ 500 Internal Server Error, which nearly gave me a heart attack. It took about 5 minutes to fix that and then the initial problem, but … god dammit. I needed a drink after that. The last thing I need right after a convention is a borked website!

Phew. Anyway.

Minicon may be the best first con as a writer that I could have possibly attended. It’s not large, so I wasn’t overwhelmed, but there were TONS of writers there, some as new as me and some big names. It felt like the first day of a brand new school full of insanely cool people who all like you. I’m still high off the experience!

Friday, I spent time with my friends at the NADWCON Seamstresses’ Guild room party, then toddled off to my first panel. It was on promoting your first book, and we had half new writers and half experienced midlist writers, which I think was about perfect. I met Blake Hausladen, who convinced my to buy his book on the spot (I am definitely remembering that trick), and Deanna Lepsch who I immediately bonded with and we’re now planning on rooming together at WorldCon.

Saturday was a mildly nervous day, because I had my first-ever public reading. I read the first chapter of Prisoner of War, and while the crowd was small, they were interested and receptive. It went about as well as I could possibly expect, which is awesome. I gave away a print of my cover art to Cheri, who squee-d. Once that was over, I did party-hopping, watched a bit of the new Dr Who episode, then went to the Sex in Science Fiction panel, which was about what you’d expect, barring the fact that the book referral that I came away with was for Geoff Ryman’s Unconquered Countries, which isn’t really about sex.

Sunday was lazy and all about the readings. First up was Dana Baird, a local YA and urban fantasy author. It’s great to start meeting the local authors, and I had a good time. She’s got another reading scheduled for April 17, and I’m planning on going. Directly following her was Elizabeth Bear, reading a short story called “Ghostmaker” set in her Eternal Sky world. It was FABULOUS, as I expected, a mix of gritty noir and Grey Mouser-style humor. Right behind Ms. Bear was Scott Lynch, who read from a sekkrit project that I desperately want to come out NOW. It was both intriguing and funny. He’s got a great reading voice, and obvious theater background.

I also picked up a new (to me) novel by Adam Stemple (Jane Yolen‘s son) called Singer of Souls, which I started and finished that day. I picked up the sequel as soon as I was done.

2 Comments

I thought Minicon was a decent con, but many of the panels I went to had more nostalgia than content. It was worth it to listen to Elizabeth Bear and Scott Lynch read, I just wish they had been on a couple of more panels. They have a lot of valuable things to say about writing.

Hey Scott, Thanks for your thoughts! I get the feeling that Minicon is pulling itself out of the attendance doldrums that happened when the board decided to scale down the convention, but it’s still quite small, and the average age is pretty high, at least compared to other conventions in the area. I had a great time at my panels – at least partially because Ms Bear was on one of them! She and Scot do indeed have a lot to contribute, and I hope that as Minicon grows, we’ll get more and more authors like them participating.